1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an integrated circuit package.
2. Description of Related Art
Integrated circuits are typically housed within a plastic or ceramic package. The package has external contacts that are soldered to a printed circuit board. The printed circuit board may have a number of packages soldered to the surface of the board. Conventional packages typically contain a single electronic device, such that the device must communicate with another device through the package and printed circuit board. For high speed electronic devices, the noise created by the board and packages has been found to degrade the performance of the devices. For this reason there has been developed packages that contain multiple integrated circuits.
It is desirable to interconnect the devices of a multi-chip module (MCM) so that the circuits can communicate without going through the package and external circuit board. For optimum efficiency it is desirable if both devices communicate at the same operating speed. The operating speed of an integrated circuit is a function of the junction temperature. The operating speed of two integrated circuits within a MCM may be different because one device may generate more heat than the other device. For example, a microprocessor may generate more heat than a second level cache located within the same package as the processor. The varying heat rates may create a variance of operating speeds. It would be desirable to provide a multi-chip module that produces a relatively uniform temperature profile for the integrated circuits within the package.